Just have the 2016 in a week!

HTown I've noticed we have pretty similar taste.

Drinking this tonight.....again

In on the Pinot Nior offering from today. Would be up for sone swap if anyone wants to try it.

Chipotlemonger said:

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Just have the 2016 in a week!

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Stop talking to my wife.

I'd split with you. Trade 1/2 for 1/2. Where are you located?

Bulverde/New Braunfels area.

What case did you buy?

OG N.06 2017 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

I'm in Cypress. This may not work, unfortunately.

HTownAg98 said:

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cecil77 said:

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YouBet said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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High acid low tannin wines tend to pair well with a wide variety of foods. That's why sommeliers love them.
That one isn't a great value ($27), but it's an excellent wine.

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If you were to force me to only drink 1-2 wines ever again it would probably be Barbera and Barolo.

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Italian food (esp tomato based) is fairly acidic. It would be interesting to know if their grape varieties tendind the the more acidic because of their food, or vice versa or neither...

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I think this has a lot to do with "if it grows together it goes together." It's not 100% accurate, but it works most of the time.

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don't think Piemonte area really is tomato heavy in their food

It's not. Their cuisine tends to be heavier and richer, which goes well with tannic wines like Barolo and Barbaresco.

Nice celebration at dinner last night:

2012 Cristal
2012 Pott Her Majesty's Secret Service
2015 Maybach Materium

I had to give my wife most of my wine but all were delicious!!!

Have you ever taken off work just to go buy a decent bottle of juice from the store? I am headed to Houston tomorrow with my wife and a good friend. We are going to replenish our cellars to prepare for the next pandemic and eat a decent lunch.

We are going to Specs and Total Wine, but it made me curious, which is the best Total Wine location in Houston?

The TW in the Woodlands. Lake Woodlands drive, just past Six Pines.

Tumble Weed said:

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Have you ever taken off work just to go buy a decent bottle of juice from the store? I am headed to Houston tomorrow with my wife and a good friend. We are going to replenish our cellars to prepare for the next pandemic and eat a decent lunch.

We are going to Specs and Total Wine, but it made me curious, which is the best Total Wine location in Houston?

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If you are looking for the mass produced stuff, Total Wine pricing is usually pretty good.

I have no ideas on location. I'd guess Memorial area would be good, there is one on Voss I think.

Downtown Spec's is best. I think they keep some stuff "upstairs" that is higher dollar.

In my experience TW is great for Bordeaux. Big selection, good prices. For Napa/Sonoma/Wa/etc, pretty average.

TW is also pretty good for Italy and Spain. For new world I'd recommend midtown Specs.

Sorry that I didn't post what I region was buying.

I called ahead to Total Wine in Willowbrook to make sure that they had the bottle that I really wanted, a Beau-Sejour Becot. It is a Premier Grand Cru from St. Emilion that we like, and it is hard to source. Showed up to find out that they did not have the vintage that I wanted. Every single employee was awful. I have had substandard service there before, but this was unacceptable.

Had lunch at Oporto and ate tapas until my belly was about to burst.

Went to the downtown location of Specs, and picked up 9 different bottles of St. Emilion Gran Cru. They had unusual labels that are hard to find. We had some detailed questions about a few labels, and I learned quite a bit from the Specs sommelier. I usually get good service at this location, and trust the staff enough to take a chance on a bottle.

After the day was done, 4 Austrian whites came home with me, as well as 9 St. Emilion Gran Cru.

I should have scanned them all into my Vivino App when I got home, but now my inventory is out of sorts again.

So I tried emailing them but they haven't responded yet so I will ask here. I have a couple cases of the De Negoce offerings on order and one is ready to ship. For $5 I can have them hold until October. They claim they will have "temperature controlled forward staging" and I am having the wine delivered to my office so it won't ever have to sit on a porch or anything like that. Should I play it safe and wait till October or is it a pretty low risk to have wine shipped to DFW right now?

GarlandAg2012 said:

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So I tried emailing them but they haven't responded yet so I will ask here. I have a couple cases of the De Negoce offerings on order and one is ready to ship. For $5 I can have them hold until October. They claim they will have "temperature controlled forward staging" and I am having the wine delivered to my office so it won't ever have to sit on a porch or anything like that. Should I play it safe and wait till October or is it a pretty low risk to have wine shipped to DFW right now?

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I'm in the same boat. I wouldn't hang my hat on any temperature control from the second it leaves their warehouse regardless of what they claim about forward staging (I'm not even sure what that means). I am expecting warehouses and trucks to be fully unconditioned and with highs in the mid to upper 90s in DFW I am probably going to pay the $5 and wait until October. I really would like to get it sooner so I can try it and potentially order more, but I guess I will wait.

15.4%!! Wow. Don't know I've seen that high before.

FTAco07 said:

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GarlandAg2012 said:

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So I tried emailing them but they haven't responded yet so I will ask here. I have a couple cases of the De Negoce offerings on order and one is ready to ship. For $5 I can have them hold until October. They claim they will have "temperature controlled forward staging" and I am having the wine delivered to my office so it won't ever have to sit on a porch or anything like that. Should I play it safe and wait till October or is it a pretty low risk to have wine shipped to DFW right now?

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I'm in the same boat. I wouldn't hang my hat on any temperature control from the second it leaves their warehouse regardless of what they claim about forward staging (I'm not even sure what that means). I am expecting warehouses and trucks to be fully unconditioned and with highs in the mid to upper 90s in DFW I am probably going to pay the $5 and wait until October. I really would like to get it sooner so I can try it and potentially order more, but I guess I will wait.

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I'm gonna roll the dice and have mine delivered. These are gonna be daily drinkers, so I don't envision them making it more than a year or so. Plus, I figure I have no qualms buying a $20 wine at HEB in August and Lord only knows how that bottle got there, so what's the difference?

GarlandAg2012 said:

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So I tried emailing them but they haven't responded yet so I will ask here. I have a couple cases of the De Negoce offerings on order and one is ready to ship. For $5 I can have them hold until October. They claim they will have "temperature controlled forward staging" and I am having the wine delivered to my office so it won't ever have to sit on a porch or anything like that. Should I play it safe and wait till October or is it a pretty low risk to have wine shipped to DFW right now?

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I'll split the $5.00 with you.

We haven't had a shipment come through since May, except the 6 bottles of Scarecrow which were cold shipped and concierge delivery. I'd be afraid of the 100 degrees for 4 hours in the back of a Ford Sprinter van. I get it that this isn't primo juice, but no reason to risk it if you aren't hard up for it.

752bro4 said:

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GarlandAg2012 said:

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So I tried emailing them but they haven't responded yet so I will ask here. I have a couple cases of the De Negoce offerings on order and one is ready to ship. For $5 I can have them hold until October. They claim they will have "temperature controlled forward staging" and I am having the wine delivered to my office so it won't ever have to sit on a porch or anything like that. Should I play it safe and wait till October or is it a pretty low risk to have wine shipped to DFW right now?

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I'll split the $5.00 with you.

We haven't had a shipment come through since May, except the 6 bottles of Scarecrow which were cold shipped and concierge delivery. I'd be afraid of the 100 degrees for 4 hours in the back of a Ford Sprinter van. I get it that this isn't primo juice, but no reason to risk it if you aren't hard up for it.

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Sounds good, I will delay.

jh0400 said:

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TW is also pretty good for Italy and Spain. For new world I'd recommend midtown Specs.

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I find their Italy to be limiting, although some good Chianti and some good barolo can be found, but not much of interest outside of those.

Can someone remind me the best/popular Texas Tempranillo And/or similar grape varietal wineries in Texas that have tasting rooms open or open in a couple of weeks? Looking for 3-4 options.

Matsui said:

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Can someone remind me the best/popular Texas Tempranillo And/or similar grape varietal wineries in Texas that have tasting rooms open or open in a couple of weeks? Looking for 3-4 options.

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Well, no surprise that I'll mention Inwood Estates. Dan Gatlin started West Texas Tempranillo 20 years ago and is the father of Texas Tempranillo. We have our 2018 Temp/Cab and 2018 Cornelius (100% temp) on our tasting menu now. The 2017 Cornelius Reserve is down to the last dozen cases or so, but I might be able to find a bottle..

Open seven days. I'm there Saturdays. I look forward to meeting you !

Cecil

We drank a bottle of the Temp/Cab a couple of weekends ago with another couple who is really into wine. Everyone loved it.

Thank you and I'll reach out prior to my visit!

What's the address of the winery?

https://traveladdicts.net/texas-hill-country-wineries/

https://www.austinmonthly.com/the-20-best-hill-country-wineries/


Are any of those recommended? 3-4 choices. Prefer Tempranillo Or similar types. A nice atmosphere (Outside area or sitting area) would be great instead of just a small tasting room.

Becker (try the Wilmeth Vineyard cab), Grape Creek (crowded on weekends), Pedernales and William Chris (reservation only) all have nice facilities and good wines. The 4.0 Cellars has some good stuff, namely from McPherson. Inwood has the best wine, especially if you are looking for Tempranillo. If you can get hooked up with Cecil for a tasting at Inwood it is well worth it.

Eh, it's alright I guess.....